Science

The Moon offers extraordinary opportunities for radio astronomy due to:

  • Inert environment: Minimal interference from the Moon itself.
  • Absence of a magnetic field and atmosphere: Reduces background noise and interference.
  • Shielding from terrestrial electromagnetic interference: Especially beneficial for observations on the far side of the Moon.
  • Low frequency bands: First steps aiming to the 50 to 150 MHz range, that are difficult to access from Earth due to man made interference.
  • LARA Solar burst simulation response below 150MHz

  • Green Bank Solar Radio Burst Spectrometer, RFI below 200 MHz hides different features. Image credit: Stephen White.

  • Radio emission from Jupiter. Synchrotron radiation dominates above ~50 MHz and DAM emissions below ~ 50 MHz. de Pater 2006.

This capability enables observations related to:

  • Solar activity and environmental disturbances: Particularly in lunar orbit Low Sensitivity Measurements (LS-M).
  • Jupiter’s radiation: Essential for diagnosing space weather in the Solar System and studying Jupiter’s magnetic field High Sensitivity Measurements (HS-M).

Technical observations:

  • Man made radiofrequency monitoring of signal emissions at low frequency bands through cislunar orbit for future instruments and analysis (RFI-M).